Aseret Y’mei T’shuvah (The Ten Days of Return): Yom Kippur 5784
The period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is known as aseret y’mei t’shuvah (The Ten Days of Return/Repentance). It is for individual reflection on the past year and decision-making for the year to come. It is a time for mending relationships by asking forgiveness from those we’ve hurt so we can approach God, on Yom Kippur, having “taken care of business.”
This annual process begs a question asked and answered by Rabbi Josef Albo (1380-1444; Spanish philosopher) in his classic work Sefer ha-Ikarim (The Book of Principles): If God knows all that will happen, why bother praying for forgiveness? If God has already decided to forgive, prayer is unnecessary. If God has decided to not forgive, the prayer is powerless. Albo’s answer is that true t'shuvah changes you completely. Once you’ve become this new person, God’s previous decree no longer applies to you (Sefer ha-Ikarim IV 18:1 and 8). According to Albo, this transformation also can be achieved through sincere t’filah (prayer).
Jewish thought suggests that the t’shuvah we do each day of aseret y’mei t’shuvah achieves forgiveness for all the wrongdoings done to others on each of those Mondays, Tuesdays, or Wednesdays, etc., during the entire previous year (Mishnah B’rurah 603:2). Thus, we can enter Yom Kippur having only to do t’shuvah for our offenses to God.
Doing t’shuvah can be daunting, and ten days may seem inadequate. But God is our partner in t’shuvah; God is just waiting for the chance to forgive. If we take the first step, even if it’s as small as “the eye of a needle,” God will open entrances “even wagons can fit through” (Shir haShirim Rabah 5:2).
Gut Shabbos/Shabbat Shalom
G’mar Chatima Tova/A Good Final Signing (in the Book of Life)
Dr. David Ackerman (Doc), Director of Jewish Living and Learning
| 
